Gas turbine engines are used to power aircraft, watercraft, power generators, and the like. Gas turbine engines typically include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. The compressor compresses air drawn into the engine and delivers high-pressure air to the combustor. In the combustor, a mixture including fuel and the high-pressure air is ignited. Products of the combustion reaction in the combustor are directed into the turbine where work is extracted to drive the compressor and, sometimes, an output shaft. Leftover combustion products are exhausted out of the turbine and may provide thrust in some applications.
In some engines, the combustor includes a wave rotor assembly that burns fuel and high-pressure air and discharges combustion products to the turbine to drive rotation of the turbine. Wave rotor assemblies may include a wave rotor combustor and an exhaust duct. Typical wave rotor combustors include an inlet assembly, an outlet assembly spaced apart from the inlet assembly along a central axis of the wave rotor combustor, and a rotor drum positioned therebetween. The inlet assembly directs a flow of air and fuel into rotor passages formed in the rotor drum. The rotor drum receives and combusts the fuel-air mixture to produce hot high-pressure products as the rotor drum rotates about the central axis. The outlet assembly provides an outlet port for the hot high-pressure products to exit the wave rotor combustor. The exhaust duct directs the hot high-pressure products out of the wave rotor combustor into the turbine.